ADMINISYRA TION 83
elders for cultivation by the people, who, however, give nothing for it
beyond contributions at ceremonies.
In 1882, during the occupation as a Penal Settlement, a system of
control over all the islands was started by means of making formal
appointments of all chiefs as from the British Government, The chiefs
thus appointed are, as far as possible, selected by the people themselves,
but Government reserves to itself the power to depose any chief who
misbehaves, and to appoint another in his place. The whole of the
islands have now acquiesced in this procedure, and by its means an
effective continuous control is maintained. Each chief receives a
formal certificate of appointment, an annual suit of clothes, a flag
(Union Jack), and a blank leather-bound book. All these he is bound
to produce at every official visit to his village ; and he undertakes to
hoist the flag at the approach of every ship, to produce his book so
that the commander may write in it any remarks, to report to official
visitors all occurrences, especially smuggling, wrecks, and violent offences
that have taken place since the last visit, and to assist in keeping order.
On the whole, the chiefs perform their duties as well as might be
expected from people of their civilization. In every other respect the
people are left to themselves.
There is a Government Agent at Nancowry, whose duties are to
assist the chiefs in keeping order, to collect fees for licences to trade
in the islands, to give port clearances, to report all occurrences, to
prevent the smuggling of liquor and guns, and to settle petty disputes
among the people themselves, or between the people and the traders,
as amicably as may be. Excepting the ceremonial `devil murders' of
Car Nicobar, there is scarcely any violent crime, and very few violent
disputes occur with the traders, so that order and control are maintained
with hardly any interruption. The `devil murders' are dealt with
directly from Port Blair.
[Rink: Die Nikobarischen Inseln (Copenhagen, 1847) ; translation
in Selections from the Records of the Government of India, No. LXXVII,
PP. 109-53.-Maurer : Die Xihobaren (Berlin, 1867) ; valuable biblio-
graphy, English, Danish, German, 1799-1863.-Selections from the
Records of the Government of India, No. LXXVII (Calcutta, 1870) ;
valuable bibliography.-Hochstetter : Beitrkge zur Geologie der Niko-
bar-Inseln, Reise der Novara, Geologischer Theil ii, 85-112 (Vienna,
1866); translation in Records of the Geological Survey of India, No. IV,
PP. 59-73, 187o.-V. Ball: 'Notes on the Geology, &c., in the Neigh-
bourhood of Nancowry Harbour,' journal, Asiatic Society of Bengal,
vol. xxxix, pp. 25-9.--De Roepstorff: Nicobarese Vocabulary (Calcutta,
1875); valuable bibliography, French, Danish, German.-De Roepstorff:
Dictionary of the Nancowry Dialect (Calcutta, 1884) ; valuable references
to Danish works.-E. H. Man: Dictionary of the Central Nicobarese
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